Hands-on Gear Review

Mad Rock R3 Review

Pros: Versatility. Soft but dense foam with multiple hinges conforms to uneven landing surfaces and cushions short to medium length falls very well. It also hauls a lot of gear well and has handy features.

Cons: Specialized. The soft, squishy, shredded foam and slightly lumpy "baffles" are not the best for some long, high falls - they could possibly roll an ankle.

Overview

The R3 is the best pad we tested for conforming to lumpy landings and for packing gear. It is also one of the best pads for steep low-ball falls on your backside. This pad is very well made and durable with nice hooks that are some of the smoothest detaching while still very secure that we've ever tried. The foam is recycled and shredded into small bits that makes a nice and soft, squishy feel. The pad is heavy though at 18 lbs it is about twice as heavy as the similar sized, Best Buy award winning, Metolius Session. Except for being heavy, all the other attributes combined with our love of the eco-conscious aspect, earn this pad our Top Pick award. Unless you are doing extreme highballs this pad will work best for most people's needs, especially if you frequent areas with uneven landings.

The R3 (Reduce Reuse Recycle) uses recycled EVA / PU foam that, according to Mad Rock, would normally be collected and shipped for disposal. This reduction in manufacturing costs and environmental waste enables Mad Rock to provide a high quality 1680 denier nylon shell that they say is the most durable in the industry. Mad Rock offers replacement foam for the R3 system so it can be re-used for many years. This pad may be the color orange on the outside but it is going "green" on the inside.

The R3 has other unique innovations with its 7 separate "baffles" that keeps the custom shredded foam compact and keeps it from piling up on one side. At the same time the baffles allow the pad to flex and conform to uneven landing zone surfaces better than any other pad its size. The foam has been shredded into popcorn size pieces giving it a unique, soft and flexible, yet dense and compact feel compared to most other crash pad foams. The softness makes for one of the best pads we've tested for cushioning low to medium high (short, abrupt) falls. For high-ball falls it tested just about average for its size category. The baffles give this pad a hybrid mix of the good and bad qualities from both a hinged style pad and a hinge-less/folding taco type. Mainly this means that you get the more reliable landing zone coverage of a taco design with the ability to open up and instantly lay flat like a hinged design.

Read the full review for more information and to see how the R3 compared in side-by-side tests with all the other pads we reviewed:

Compare Side-by-Side

Analysis and Hands-on Test Findings

Review by:
Chris SummitReview EditorOutdoorGearLab

Last Updated:
Thursday
March 26, 2015

Likes

The unique design of the R3 with 6 "hinges" that are partially (about 35%) sealed with padding and the 7 individual "baffles" offers benefits over the two most popular pad designs: single unsealed hinge style pad and hingeless/taco style. (If you are already confused about hinges, read our Bouldering Pad Buying Advice). First of all, when we saw the many partially sealed hinges we were a bit skeptical. Pads with a single unsealed hinge have failed some of our tests when a rock, root or other obstacle protrudes through the unsealed hinge into the landing zone. We thought that this pad with multiple hinges might have multiple chances to fail. So we tested specifically to see if we could get the 6 partial hinges to fail. After several tests the hinges did not fail unless the pad was placed right over a lot of extremely jagged rocks in which case a few pointy rocks would, on a very rare occasion, be able to be slightly felt through the hinges. Of course, in an even less likely scenario, this could possibly cause minor injury but in most cases it is nothing to be overly concerned about. Because the hinges are partially filled with padding nothing ever pushed all the way through. The hinge-less/taco style pads offer the more reliable landing zone coverage on jagged terrain having no single unsealed hinge to fail. The classic single hinged style and this new style with multiple baffles both open up and lay flat quickly and easily. The other benefit that the baffles give and that no other average sized pad on the market shares is the ability to conform to any surface. This is the best pad design for covering rocks or any lumpy landing zones (see pics) and is therefore an important part of any collection of pads.

Check out this quick clip of the R3 vs Metolius Bailout (normal single hinge style pad) in a comparison of padding an uneven landing zone:

Packing a lot of gear is also very comfortable and secure with a great suspension system that is solidly attached.

Updated - June 2015
After rigorous long-term testing of the R3 with heavy loads on rough terrain the shoulder straps ended up breaking off the original design we had reviewed. Since then the new 2015 models have reinforced bar tack stitching where the shoulder straps attach.

The shoulder straps and waist belt are padded and fit well. The chest strap is always a useful addition and the ever so handy handle between the shoulder strap for loading the pack onto your back is essential. The daisy chain webbing all over the back of the pad makes for quick and easy attachments and adjustments of the closure straps as well as being able to clip on other miscellaneous gear. There is also a handy extension flap/tarp that rolls out to keep your feet and bottom clean and dry at the base of a problem. The flap/tarp can also protect the suspension area of the pad so if the ground is muddy you don't get your back wet and dirty when it's time to pack it out. The shredded, recycled foam is not just good for the environment, it has a soft but dense feel and has barely softened up in a few months of rigorous testing. We believe the longer lasting life of the foam could partially be due to the separated, tightly sealed baffles. The dense softness makes for one of, if not the best, cushioning pads for short, abrupt, medium high falls and jarring, low-ball, on your back type falls. The other pad that scored highly in our testing metrics across the board and was similar in size and overall function to the R3 is our Editors' Choice award winning Black Diamond Drop Zone.

Mad Rock R3 fully loaded - it carried more than any other pad of it's size that we tested.

Dislikes

For high-ball falls it tested just barely below average for its size category. The baffles seem like they could be just lumpy enough to roll an ankle on if you were extremely small framed and/or had weak ankles. One of our smaller sized, higher weight testers lightly sprained their ankle on just a small-medium length fall. Our average or bigger sized, tough ankled testers barely noticed the lumps and never felt it was a concern. It seems that the softness of the foam allows the lumpy baffles to squish down just before rolling an ankle, hopefully. It was not really bad at highballs in our tests but not as good as other thicker pads with denser foam. The 1680 Denier nylon is touted as being the most durable in the industry but we would like to test it more to find out for sure. The different weaves of the Denier can often make 1050 stronger than 1680 in some cases so time will tell and further testing is needed. We will add the durability into this review after a few more weeks-months of tests. The final dislike is pure nitpicking since we do like the orange color but we think a green or brown version would be more fitting with its eco-conscious vibe.

Best Application

If you mostly do difficult low-balls and steep cave problems where you're falling hard on your back a lot then this is one of the best pads out there. This could also be an integral part of a team of pads for covering the lumpy/uneven parts of highball landing zones. If you need a pad that works well in backpack mode this is one of the best at packing and hauling a lot of gear.

Value

A fair deal for a very specialized product with a lot of innovative, useful features, quality materials and good craftsmanship. Here's how the (55' x 35' x 4") R3 stacks up against a few of its closest competitors: The Mad Rock Mad Pad is a fairly less expensive, yet comparably sized (36" x 48" x 5") pad but offers less features, less carrying capacity in a hinged style. The thicker padding on the Mad Pad makes it better for your average, no frills medium to high problem. For a few dollars less than the R3 you can get the slightly smaller (38' x 48' x 4") but tried and true Organic Full Pad with high quality foam. See our overall pad comparisons for a lot more info.

Mini review of the Mad Rock R3:

The broken shoulder strap/suspension failure issue mentioned in the video on the original version of the R3 has been fixed on the latest models. A bit more testing and time will tell just how much better the straps are on the new version. We can assume that the extra stitching and a bar-tack that was added according to Mad Rock will do the trick but check back with this review soon for the results of our tests and more detailed info on the new improved model.

Conclusion

Packing gear is easy and secure with ample room inside as well as side and bottom flaps to hold the stuff in. The suspension system is solidly attached with comfortable shoulder straps, chest strap, waist belt and the extremely useful handle between the shoulder straps for loading the pad onto your back in pack-mode. There is also daisy chain webbing on the back of the pad for quick easy attachments of the straps as well as any other gear. The 55" x 35" x 4" size is a fair amount above the average size of about 48" x 36" x 4" but it still feels like a smaller size pad when carrying it. It is heavy though. At 18 lb. it weighs about twice as much as other pads that are only about 6" smaller. The weight can be worth it when you consider it is the best pad for conforming to uneven landing zones, all the extra features it has and the dense recycled foam. That all adds weight but they are all very useful features and are, in our opinion worth the extra poundage and are what make the pad an overall winner.

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